Where an employee does not advise his or her intention to institute proceedings and there is no response from the insurer in relation to payment, there may be a case for Comcare to institute proceedings to recover compensation paid.
All necessary attempts should be made to request this information; however, if there is no response after 3 months, a claim should then be considered under section 50.
Section 50 provides the basis for recovery of money where Comcare either institutes or takes over proceedings that are not progressing satisfactorily (which is quite rare, as it is unlikely that Comcare would become aware of this, unless the employee approached Comcare for assistance).
In these cases, preliminary consideration must be given to the financial viability of undertaking such action. Particular factors to be considered include:
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cost of the claim; and
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success of a third party action.